Dentures just one of many items lost & then found at the State Fair of Texas
DALLAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) — There are so many hidden treasures found at the State Fair or Texas every year, and the gold mine is stowed away in a corner in the back of the fairgrounds.
CBS News Texas is digging through all of it at the fair's lost and found office, of which many people still say they never knew existed.
"We went to the car and I said, 'Honey, I can't find my dentures,'" fairgoer Joe Garner said. "She said, 'You can't find them?' I said, 'No, it had to be in the State Fair of Texas.'"
In his case, Garner can't help but smile at the recovered treasure as he got his dentures back after losing them last week.
He is a prime example of how one can find a little bit of everything in the lost and found office.
"Well, we have brought in a thousand items and we've returned almost 500 of them already," lost and found supervisor Tommy Ames said.
They have bins for every different thing you can think of.
The most common lost item? Cell phones. Other popular items include keys, IDs, wallets and purses.
Someone even lost their passport this year. Another, a motorized wheelchair.
Luckily for Garner, what he lost was found in the room of orphaned items.
"This is the third year in a row we've found dentures," Ames said. "This year, we were able to return the dentures to the owner."
Garner is appreciative of the lost and found despite not knowing of its existence for years. "I saw those dentures and I said, 'You have no idea how expensive that upper plate is.'"
If you lose something at the fair during the last few days or just realized you lost something there, you can still contact the lost and found office for an additional week after the fair closes. Things that aren't claimed will be donated to different charities, with the exception of IDs and credit and debit cards. Those will be destroyed.
This year, you can also call ahead or send email inquiries about lost items.